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The Neon Demon Reviewed by Jon E Clist

Sixteen-year-old aspiring model Jesse arrives in Los
Angeles expecting to be a successful model. The aspirant photographer Dean
takes photos for her portfolio and dates her. Jesse befriends the lesbian
makeup artist Ruby and then the envious models Gigi and Sarah in a party.
Meanwhile the agency considers Jesse beautiful with a "thing" that
makes her different and she is sent to the professional photographer Jack.
Jesse attracts the attention of the industry and has a successful beginning of
career. But Ruby, Gigi and Sarah are capable to do anything to get her
"thing".

The Review

It wasn’t all that long ago that Drive was a break out cinematic hit. It
was one of those films that united pretty much all the film critics and
reviewers that I know and their sentiment was pretty much echoed by the public.
His follow up film Only God Forgives
did not get the same level of cohesive praise and yet it was certainly another
beautifully filmed and edited piece of cinema. However, the characters weren’t
as compelling and the story was a little more piecemeal. Anyway, here Refn
Winding has returned with his latest explosion of cinematic colour in the form
of The Neon Demon. He has returned
in a similar vein to Only God Forgives
with the collection of edgier content being thrust into the storyline.

The rating kind of says it all and
although this film is rather amazing to behold from an artistic point of view,
the level of some content has slimmed it’s already narrow target audience to a
very small group. R18 – Contains Violence, horror,
sexual material & necrophilia. I know what you are thinking, “I have never seen the word necrophilia in a films NZ rating notes”.
Well I tried to check it out and found that there have certainly been several
horror films that have had it as a central theme and to be honest, I am a
little shocked. In The Neon Demon,
it is a scene that demonstrates one of the main characters depravity and focus
on the selfish drive to fulfil one’s own lust and fantasies. I am certainly not
convinced that it needed to be in the film as there were plenty of other scenes
and elements of the storyline that achieved the same thing.

This is a
film that is certainly having a big dig at the shallow and fickle world of
fashion, modelling and beauty. There is a massive focus on the lengths that
people will go to to stay in the world’s central gaze; to be the most
important, the most beautiful and even if it is in a shallow way, the most
loved. Without going into detail as to how these emotions and elements are
demonstrated on screen, I will say that Refn Winding certainly has used his
imagination to great extent to manifest this crazy world.

I came out
of this film feeling in some ways morally violated and yet challenged as to how
I view the entertainment world’s thirst for beauty and relevance. I can
understand from my own movie going life that sometimes we need to be slapped in
the face with the horrid in order to see what is behind it. Not everyone can
stomach that and not everyone should. If you were to take the violence and bad
language out of Once Were Warriors,
it would not move you, nor would it drive you to hate domestic violence and
thirst for change. While I do not think The Neon Demon’s message is quite as
poignant, nor as relevant to as many people, there is still a lesson to learn.
Yet probably a better way to say it to reach more people.

The Verdict

Not for everyone, in fact not for
many and yet so many visually amazing components make this film something
rather challenging, thought-provoking and intriguing.